› added 9 years ago

125

TIL that from 1995 to 2000, the winner of the McDonald’s Monopoly grand prize was an insider tasked with producing the game pieces.

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yQlgp TIL the word "dashboard" actually derives from a wooden or leather board attached to the front of a horse-drawn carriage to protect the driver from mud splashes thrown up or "dashed' by the horse's hooves.
VMg7B TIL why the Apollo 11 moon landing footage is so grainy. There was a pristine version at NASA for years, but around 1980 due to a data tape shortage they reused the tape for something else.
b6y4E TIL that Australia actually exports sand to Saudi Arabia. This is because maritime or beach sand is coarser than desert sand. Coarse sand j's needed in construction which effectively makes desert sand completely useless.
J1gJl TIL the concept of romantic-sexual kissing was not practiced in the Americas prior to European contact. Anthropologists theorize a link between social complexity and romantic-sexual kissing, and many modern hunter-gatherer societies still do not practice romantic-sexual kissing between partners.
x6J4w TIL that “Big in Japan” was written by Alphaville’s lead singer about two of his junkie friends. "That line has a certain meaning…. 'I'm not a loser because in Japan I'm really big.' It's the lie of the loser and it fit perfectly into the story of these junkies, in a very tragic way…”